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THE GOOD LORD BIRD

James McBride

Novel about identity and injustice, told through the harrowing story of Little Onion, a young boy born a slave who must pass as a woman to survive as he joins John Brown’s anti-slavery crusade.
“I was born a colored man and don’t you forget it. But I lived as a colored woman for seventeen years.” So begins James McBride’s captivating new novel, The Good Lord Bird. Henry Shackleford is a young slave living in the Kansas Territory in 1857, when the region is a battleground between anti- and pro-slavery forces. When John Brown, the legendary abolitionist, arrives in the area, an argument between Brown and Henry’s master quickly turns violent. Henry is forced to leave town—with Brown, who believes he’s a girl.

Over the ensuing months, Henry—whom Brown nicknames Little Onion—is forced to conceal his true identity as he struggles to stay alive during these turbulent times. Eventually Little Onion finds himself involved in Brown’s historic raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859—one of the great catalysts for the Civil War. An absorbing mixture of history and imagination, and told with McBride’s meticulous eye for detail and character, The Good Lord Bird is both a rousing adventure and an engrossing and moving exploration of identity, survival and injustice. JAMES MCBRIDE is the critically acclaimed author of the American classic The Color of Water (1996) and the bestsellers Song Yet Sung (2008) and Miracle at St. Anna (2002), which was turned into a film by Spike Lee. McBride has written for The Washington Post, People, The Boston Globe, Essence, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times. A graduate of Oberlin College, he has a master’s in journalism from Columbia University. McBride holds several honorary doctorates and is a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University.
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Book

Published 2013-08-01 by Riverhead

Book

Published 2013-08-01 by Riverhead

Comments

From Brooklyn, N.Y., to Deadwood, S.D., 'tis the season for book festivals, when hundreds of authors meet thousands of readers. A few of the major ones in the next two months: Brooklyn: The eighth annual Brooklyn Book Festival on Sept. 22; authors include Edwidge Danticat, Tom Wolfe and James McBride. Read more...

It takes a daring writer to tackle a decidedly unflattering pre-Civil War story. Yet, in McBride's capable hands, the indelicate matter of a befuddled tween from the mid-19th century provides a new perspective on one of the most decisive periods in the history of this country.

THE GOOD LORD BIRD wins the National Book Award 2013 for Fiction Read more...

As in Huck Finn, this novel comes in through the back door of history, telling you something you might not know by putting you in the heat of the action…It is a compelling story and an important one, told in a voice that is fresh and apolitical.

THE GOOD LORD BIRD has now been named to the National Book Award Fiction short list. The Awards ceremony is November 20th. finalists see: http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2013/10/16/national-book-award-finalists/2990061. Read more...

A SUPERBLY WRITTEN NOVEL… Through crackling prose and smart, wryly humorous dialogue, McBride tells his story through the eyes of the slave Henry Shackleford, who as a young boy is kidnapped by Brown during one of his Kansas raids. Wrapping the ugliness of slavery in a pitch-perfect adventure story is more than just a reimagining of an historic event. McBride, as he did in Song Yet Sung and Miracle at St. Anna, transcends history and makes it come alive.

On Monday, James and the band performed on Soundcheck, with an interview about THE GOOD LORD BIRD. Read more...

A boisterous, highly entertaining, altogether original novel by James McBride...There is something deeply humane in this [story], something akin to the work of Homer or Mark Twain. We tend to forget that history is all too often made by fallible beings who make mistakes, calculate badly, love blindly and want too much. We forget, too, that real life presents utterly human heroes with far more contingency than history books can offer. McBride’s Little Onion — a sparkling narrator who is sure to win new life on the silver screen — leads us through history’s dark corridors, suggesting that “truths” may actually lie elsewhere.

"A MAGNIFICANT NEW NOVEL by the best-selling author James McBride…a brilliant romp of a novel…McBride—with the same flair for historical mining, musicality of voice and outsize characterization that made his memoir 'The Color of Water,' an instant classic -- pulls off his portrait masterfully, like a modern-day Mark Twain: evoking sheer glee with every page."

Showtime series to be released in August 2020 Read more...